Consetn of the Governed

Executive Committee

Bishop John Adams, Chairman
 
Rev. Carroll Baltimore, 1st Vice Chairman

Art Nicoletti, 2nd Vice Chairman

Dr. Dick Bozian, Secretary
 
Rev. Daniel Brown Treasurer

CIA and the Media

“To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or knaves.”

Claude-Adrien Helvetius
(1715 –1771)
Source: On the Mind

During the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearings of 1973, several former Directors of the CIA were being drilled by the Committee to tell all they knew about the assassination of world leaders and if the CIA was involved in the murders. For all the obvious reasons, each of the witnesses took the position of plausible deniability; they simply did not remember. Unbeknownst to anyone at the hearings, a rhetorical question posed by Senator Richard Schweiker (R-PA) was about to change the role of a free press in America forever – or at least it should have.

“Since none of the former Directors of the CIA have any memory of the facts surrounding the murders of world leaders - then perhaps we need to call before the Committee members of the media who where assigned in these countries at the time.” The following is an account of the events outlined by former staff present at the meeting along with public data.

The CIA officials called for a fifteen minute recess following Senator Schweiker’s suggestion. When they returned, they made the following suggestion: “We will be willing to answer your questions concerning our knowledge of the murders of world leaders if you do not ask us any questions concerning CIA involvement in the media.” Senator Church clearly stunned called for his own recess during which he contacted the then Director of the CIA, George H.W. Bush, and demanded that he (Bush) open up the files on the CIA’s involvement with the media. Director Bush agreed.

Chairman Church then sent a Committee staffer, Dr. William Bader, to CIA Headquarters to examine the files. Dr. Bader issued a report that stated as follows: After reviewing some 400 plus “sample folders” Dr. Bader concluded that each folder contained a list of persons who were on the payroll of both a media outlet and the CIA at the same time and were doing so in secret. Some of them were charged to disseminate misinformation, disinformation and or to smear/destroy the lives of innocent people.

This led to Senator Church and Director Bush meeting and concluding that “no member of the media” would be called before the Committee or the cameras and their names would not be released to the Committee or the public. In addition, the CIA “promised” to establish an Agency Regulation that pledges it would never enter into another arrangement with the media. However, if it did, it would notify appropriate congressional members ahead of time. However, if the Agency did not notify congress, the Agency would not be held culpable.

Outraged by these revelations, persons within the media, headed by Richard Salant, former President of CBS Evening News, and civic leaders, began a group called the National News Council. This was essentially a watch dog group overseeing the media. It got its funding from major media outlets and was doing just fine until the New York Times felt the group was watching it too closely and stopped the funding. This action essentially closed the National Council down.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

It is critical to note that there are two major components that make up the “free press”. On one side we have the evening news, CNN, or a hundred other media outlets that supply the America people with information 24/7 in numerous languages of the world.

On the other side there is the business of running the media that spends huge sums of monies to lobby congressional/political leaders for purposes of protecting the interests of the businesses that collectively own the media. The central unanswered question here is Are the newsrooms of America holding back information that, if known, would cause political harm to the congressional/ officials working and doing favors for the business of running the media?

MAIN OWNERS OF THE MEDIA – SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Included in the media (TV, radio, newspapers) should be added book publishers, music, internet, etc. Subsidiaries owned by the media include, but are not limited to, companies that represent practically every line of business or industry. Here are the Main Owners of the media.

Time-Werner, Disney owns ABC, Viacom owns CBS, General Electric owns NBC, AT&T owns TCI – Sony Studios – Paramount Studios – Gannet – Showtime, etc. Rupert Murdock owns Ritter and New York Daily News and others.

GOVERNMENT AND THE MEDIA

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed the media to buy other media outlets thus creating huge controls over the airwaves. The Act also gave television station owners, at tax payers cost, something called, DIGITAL SPECTRUM. In a word, the television stations were given – free - the gift of “free airwaves” now estimated at $70 – $100 Billion.

Some $3.5 Billion was spent on Election 2000 for television ads. 80% of these monies came from 1⁄4 of 1% of all American. The figures follow very closely in Election 2004. 2008.

RESULTS

Investigations of the media and their subsidiaries are virtually non-existent. Investigations of wrong doings on the part of those inside government fall under the same safety net. This condition has raised great suspicion on the part of the American people as to what the media really knew about the claims for the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq following 9/11.

With thousands of our young people dead because of this “faulty call” and the lack of any challenge therein by the media, indeed, many taking a supportive role for the war, there is still no evidence of any one media outlet being called before congress and being reprimanded for their role to escalate the war – nor an examination of whether or not any member of the media was on the payroll of any government agency or department. Biggest story of all may be the “silence all around.”

REASON FOR OPTIMISM

Those behind the status quo here know all too well what the consequence to them would be if this information were to become known to the public or discussed in public forums. The fact of the matter is we, as a people, deserve better than to be the recipients of misuse the power and authority by keeping us in the dark. A truly free press is too important to make democracy work. It’s time a careful, thoughtful examination of the role for a free press in the 21st Century. It may be that legislation is the way out of accepted practices to use our free press as a means to put money before truth – secrecy before truth.

For more information on this critically important topic, we suggest

  1. Rich Media: Poor Democracy by Robert McChesney.
  2.  Rolling Stones Article: CIA and the Media by Carl Bernstein
  3.  Book Title: The CIA and the Media Hearings on the Subcommittee on Oversight of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on Oversight Author US Congress 1973
  4. Google – The Church Hearings (several sources)
  5. Wikipedia: CIA and the media